How Corruption Creeps Into Islamic Leadership

Alhamdulillah. Continuing in the chapter of patience authored by the 52nd narration goes along with the 51st narration that we had briefly read yesterday morning.

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For.

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He mentions here a narration on the authority of Mas who narrates that the messenger of Allah Sam said indeed there will be after me great oppression overstepping and things from your leadership that you shall see that you will reject. act that you that do not exist today in our leadership. So the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam says after me and after me here after him. This is a reference not only to his sunnah, not only to his person sallall.aii wasallam, but also to his sunnah and his legacy. when the majority of the leadership of Islam will be led by his companions the Abu Bakr and Omar and Ali, this is considered to be the golden age. They have a sunnah which is an extension of his sunnah sall.ai Wasam. In the narration of the prophet Sam said and so he said hold to my sunnah and the sunnah of my rightly guided successors after me. So their sunnah or those things which they instituted in the expansion of the Muslim Islamic it is an extension of the prophet's saiam after that as the prophet mentioned it will become a kingdom a kingship just other kingdoms it will be led by Muslims there will be good aspects there will be bad aspects there will be the oppressive leader and there will be the just leader. And so the prophet here says after my departure there will be a leadership that will be oppressive specifically is when the leadership takes what is belonging onging to the people and keeps it for himself, keeps it for his minions, keeps it for keeps it for those who are close to him. This is referred to as it doesn't just have to be money doesn't just it could be also position. When we have positions of authority amongst us, who is to occupy those positions of authority? The best amongst us, those who are most qualified are the ones who are to who are to occupy those positions of authority amongst us. However, when there is oppressive leadership or misguided leadership, what happens? Nepotism, minionism, right? And so when this creeps in and it changes from being a meritocracy where the qualified occupy those positions and turns into a eth meaning that which is the right of the qualified it now becomes something that is specific to the leader. He distributes it as he sees fit. Right? and it could as well be things like riches, things wealth, etc. All of these things, things that are supposed to be shared with the people, he keeps it for himself. That's one. The second thing that you will see that our prophet warns us is that and things that you all will reject. innovation, changes in tone, political and otherwise, , etc. Things that, , are are disobedience from the people in power. Might even be blatant public disobedience to an extent. Judges might start taking bribes, things that. corruption when it starts to creep in. A man once was sent by the prophet sallall.aii wasallam to collect these zakah. And as he's going to collect these zaka, when he arrived at some of the ranches that he was to collect zaka from, the people giving zaka that year started to started to give the collector gifts, giving him gifts. They didn't bring these gifts to his house. They didn't look for him to give him these gifts. Before he was the prophet's collector of zaka. Now all of the sudden he has this position where he's collecting zaka. They're giving him all of the zaka. But a little gift too. This is for you. We know you work hard and you know you it's really a a labor of love. You're so selfless, you know, and and you're you're this is for you. We want you to have this. Okay. So, here's my zak for the year and this is for you. And so he came back and said, "This here is zaka, but these over here, this is for me. Somebody gave me these as a gift." And so the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam immediately rejected this. Immediately prohibited this. Why? Because this is exactly how this is exactly how corruption begins. All right? The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam said if that is truly a gift why didn't you sit at your own home and wait for them to bring you your gift. That gift is only because you are in a position of collecting zaka. This year they'll give you zaka. Next year they'll give you zaka. the year after. Well, you know, I'm having a hard year this year. Things are tough. Well, you know, don't worry about it because no gift comes to a position of power without strings attached. That's how it works. That is why governments become so corrupt and so entrenched in corruption. And so the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam mentioned that these things were going to rear their head after his departure and they must they always will. Did he eradicate corruption in his time? He eradicated it from public view. Yes. But evil will always exist. It's just an issue of keeping it out of public. And so as things become weakened, as the Muslim empire expands at such a rapid and exponential speed, it becomes nearly impossible for this not to happen. And so the companions asked, they said, "What should we do in response to this corruption? Should we fight against them? What should we do?" He said to You give the rights that are expected of you and you ask Allah for the rights that are for you. Why? Because as the prophet sallall.aii wasallam mentioned, just because we have a bad leader doesn't mean that we can be bad followers. And we don't base our actions on other people. We base our actions on the Quran and.

[Arabic recitation]